A ROBBER who staged a £20,000 daylight raid on a Reading bank has had his sentence reduced on appeal by top judges.

Anthony Mason, 32, and an accomplice, accosted a female security guard as she made a delivery of cash boxes to the HSBC Bank in Tilehurst, in May last year, pushing her to the ground and making off with £20,000 in notes she was carrying.

Mason, a heroin addict of no fixed abode with three previous convictions for robbery, was handed an indefinite term of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) after admitting robbery at Reading Crown Court on October 11, last year.

Almost identical to a life term, the IPP sentence means Mason can have no hope of release until he can persuade the Parole Board he poses no serious public danger.

He was told he must serve a minimum of three-and-a-half years behind bars before he could even apply for parole.

However, Lord Justice Thomas, sitting with Mr Justice Stadlen and Judge Brian Barker at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, yesterday ruled that the minimum term was too harsh and cut it to three years.

The court heard that Mason pleaded guilty on the basis that he only became involved in the heist on the instructions of his dealer in order to pay off a drugs debt.

Allowing the appeal against the minimum term, but dismissing a challenge to the IPP sentence itself, Lord Justice Thomas said: “This was his fourth robbery within as many years and matters were getting steadily worse.

This was a serious, planned, commercial robbery, albeit no weapons were used and there was minimal force.

“The appellant entered into this with his eyes open and a bad record.

“The judge was entitled to come to the conclusion that there was a further risk of serious harm to the public on the facts and was entitled to impose the IPP.

“But perhaps the minimum term was too high and could be reduced slightly.

“The minimum term should be three years and to that extent this appeal is allowed,” the judge concluded.